Using Remote Desktop with Azure Roles

Updated: November 21, 2014

By using the Azure SDK and Remote Desktop Services, you can access Azure roles and virtual machines that are hosted by Azure. In Visual Studio, you can configure Remote Desktop Services from an Azure project. To enable Remote Desktop Services, you must create a working project that contains one or more roles and then publish it to Azure.

Important

You should access an Azure role for troubleshooting or development only. The purpose of each virtual machine is to run a specific role in your Azure application, not to run other client applications. If you want to use Azure to host a virtual machine that you can use for any purpose, see Accessing Azure Virtual Machines from Server Explorer.

If you aren’t ready to publish, click Cancel. Your Remote Desktop configuration will still be saved, and you can publish your cloud service later.

After you publish your cloud service, you can use Server Explorer to log into the virtual machines that Azure hosts. In Server Explorer, expand the Azure Compute node, and then expand the node for a cloud service and one of its roles to display a list of instances.

Open the shortcut menu for an instance node, and then choose Connect Using Remote Desktop.